Over the past several years, virtualization of network resources has been introduced and embraced. According to various embodiments, virtualization can include emulating a hardware/software appliance using virtualized resources. Virtualization can provide flexibility with regard to capacity and functionality, thereby enabling an ability to react and/or address demand shifts, lulls, and/or spikes, as well as an ability to change the functionality associated with the virtualized resources. In particular, virtualization can enable quick creation and scaling of applications as well as quick updates or other changes to the virtualized resources relative to traditional network changes, which has often entailed long lead times and/or downtime to accommodate scale and/or functionality changes.
To update or otherwise change the virtualized resources, however, the virtual network function may be shut down, updated or otherwise changed, and subsequently restarted with the new configuration. Such changes can require defining a step-by-step method of procedures (“MOP”) to be used to make these changes on the targeted virtual network function and other interconnecting peers without affecting end-to-end network services. This can consume a great deal of resources and time and therefore can inhibit the ability to update and change virtualized services quickly.
Additionally, as dependence upon cloud services continues to grow, updates and other maintenance may be required more frequently, resulting in increases in downtime and labor to prepare the MOPs mentioned above. Also, there may be a large number of virtual network function instances and a large variety of virtual network functions in a virtualized platform, as well as complex inter-dependency and message routing configurations. Thus, shutdowns of virtual network functions may impact many peer virtual network function instances that can further exacerbate the problems of high cost in terms of downtime, labor, and the like. Still further, given the increasing reliance upon cloud services for realtime and mission-critical services, there is an increased risk and impact of infrastructure level fault and maintenance needs.